


Till Death Do Us Part

by some_nights



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, M/M, Past Character Death, Stream of Consciousness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:00:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21659428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/some_nights/pseuds/some_nights
Summary: The untimely demise of Peter Lukas was far from unexpected, as far as Jonah Magnus is concerned. Both of them surviving their little bet would have been more surprising. The way it all played out, Peter's death is infinitely preferable over the alternative; starting from scratch with a new Archivist after he came so far with this one would have been quite bothersome.Jonah goes looking for Peter's body in the tunnels.
Relationships: Elias Bouchard/Peter Lukas
Comments: 16
Kudos: 96





	Till Death Do Us Part

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place after MAG159 (obviously)

The untimely demise of Peter Lukas was far from unexpected, as far as Jonah Magnus is concerned. Both of them surviving their little bet would have been more surprising. The way it all played out, Peter's death is infinitely preferable over the alternative; starting from scratch with a new Archivist after he came so far with this one would have been quite bothersome.

Apart from that, Jonah had known Peter would die before him - that's just the way it always goes. They all die in the end and Jonah lives on. There are, of course, a few exceptions. Not members of the Lukas family though. Jonah had watched a lot of them die over the years, some directly, others indirectly. So even though Peter had somehow managed to become a bigger part of Jonah's life than he'd originally planned, he'd always been careful to maintain a certain distance - as much as he'd enjoyed their time together (and their quarrels and their time apart), Peter would die and he would live on without him, for all eternity if all worked out as planned.

They’d foolishly made different plans at one point, painted versions of the future where Peter Lukas would live longer than the average Lukas and stay by Jonah’s side. The Forsaken doesn’t want immortal avatars though - at least not in the Lukas family. It definitely doesn’t want its avatars to bind themselves to someone for all eternity, a quality Jonah greatly appreciates. It is so much easier not to care about people when they don’t want you to. So when his patron beckoned Peter away, Jonah didn’t try to hold on. He had pushed and pushed and pushed until everything that remained of their plans had been a bet. And now Peter Lukas is dead.

Jonah has things to do that are more pressing than crawling around through these tunnels that, by the day, seem to fill up with more spiders; things like writing a very important letter. Instead, here he is, below the Institute, trying to figure out where the Lonely spit Peter Lukas's corpse out. He Knows the room, of course, he’s just having trouble finding it.

Peter had been a stubborn and foolish man to the end. His death, even though eventually inevitable, was his choice. Jonah isn't sure if he can forgive him for that. Jonah isn't sure if he's even angry at him. If Peter hadn't fought until the very last possible moment, if he had stayed behind after pushing Martin into the Lonely, Jonah would have lost some respect for the man. But then again, he does value a good self-preservation instinct.

There is no use in dwelling on these scenarios and Jonah knows that in more ways than one; still, he can't help his thoughts from going back to their last exchange. He’s sure that, on some level, they'd both been aware that they wouldn’t see each other again after that. Jonah has been trying to remember what he'd felt in that moment and though he knows an easy way to find out, he wants to remember it naturally.

At least he knows what he’s feeling at this moment, what he has been feeling ever since he’d Seen Jon and Martin exit the Lonely. Jonah is sad. That's the easiest way of putting it. He should feel exhilarated at his plan reaching its last phase, he should be glad that Peter had severely underestimated Martin - otherwise, Jonah might not be as alive as he is at the moment. (Stupid, foolish man; I warned you, didn't I.) Deep inside him, there is a certain joy, unbridled exaltation, a sensation that, under usual circumstances, would have him walking around with, as his employees said behind his back, “a smile that makes him look like a cartoon villain who’s just explained his masterplan and thinks he’s unstoppable.” These are not usual circumstances though and any smidge of positive feelings is suffocated by the heavy blanket of sadness on his soul that’s growing heavier day by day. Jonah fears that soon, it will suffocate him. Of course, he knows he won't actually die of grief (for that's what this blanket of sadness is); it still hurts. That's the reason he isn't writing the letter that will end the world but walking through these seemingly endless tunnels, looking for the body of the man who'd come closer to being loved by him than anyone else ever had.

Jonah is pretty sure he hadn't actually been in love with Peter Lukas. Their relationship had developed into more than Jonah had bargained for but in the end, it had mostly been business-related. That’s how it had started and Jonah likes to think that, despite their intricate cycle of lashing out and being hurt and desperately trying not to care for each other, it remained a business arrangement at its core.

Peter had always been different from other Lukases which is what originally drew Jonah to him. Most avatars of the Lonely are bleak and dreary people who have never had a day of fun in their life. While many members of the Lukas family make for passable conversation partners, they get boring after a while, especially when you've heard it all before. Not Peter, though. The first time Jonah had seen him – still in the body of "James Wright" – Peter Lukas had been laughing; not a polite chuckle, nothing menacing, just a laugh of pure joy that seemed to Jonah like a bright star in the dark night. Naturally, this had awakened Jonah's curiosity so by the time he'd had to choose a Lukas for "Elias", the choice had been obvious. The Lukases never seem to learn and sign pretty much every document you give them as long as you promise to leave them alone after; over the centuries, Jonah had gotten into the habit of scheming them out of their money in various ways, one Lukas per identity.

While extorting Peter Lukas, he found that Peter, in stark contrast to a large part of his family, rejoiced in being a Lonely avatar. He loved his little boat and was, in general, happy with his lot in life. A lot of Lukases serve the Lonely out of a sense of obligation, of tradition. Peter, though, seemed to do it mostly for fun. Jonah also found that Peter put up a fight - rarely about things that really mattered but always with a ferocity that took Jonah by surprise time and time again.

If he hadn't picked Peter, the last two decades wouldn't have been as fun, that was for sure. Especially in the years where nothing seemed to move or everything went wrong, Peter had always proven an entertaining distraction. However, Jonah also knows that he wouldn't be in these dark tunnels. There's no way anybody else could have gotten him to search for their body in this dark labyrinth. He thinks that, maybe, the Eye disapproves of his mission. It’s taking him ages to find the room the body is in and the tunnels tried to lead him down the same path twice quite a few times. He could just give up on this unnecessary and increasingly frustrating ordeal. Jonah walks deeper into the darkness.

They’d talked about Peter’s death more than once. The time Jonah remembers the most is right after their first wedding. It had been a courthouse-only affair, after all, Jonah had mostly been in it for the alimonies. For some reason, he’d invited Peter out to a café afterwards where they just sat and talked. “It's a pity they didn't say 'Till death do us part', I always liked that”, Peter had said and Jonah remembers thinking: “Who would have thought, a Lukas who’s a romantic at heart.”

It was simple sentences like these, statements that allowed Jonah a glimpse into Peter’s soul, that made their first marriage last longer than he’d originally had planned. Since they were sharing a bank account anyway, there wasn’t really any reason to rock the boat and he enjoyed discovering the nuances of Peter Lukas too much to just throw it all away. Eventually, they had gotten divorced. That was the true starting point of the constant back and forth between them.

For their second wedding, Jonah had gotten a priest who did say: "Till death do you part." Peter had winked at him and Jonah had thought he should be the one winking – after all, Peter was the one who’d die; Jonah would be left behind.

One of the problems, Jonah had concluded a long time ago, was that he loved Peter's smile. Of all the facial expressions Jonah had learned to coax out of him over the years, the mischievous smile that brought a twinkle to Peter's eyes as if he knew a secret that no one else was privy to had been the only one to make Jonah's heart flutter every single time (his "devil-may-care" laugh was a close second though - also a problem.) No matter what had happened, Jonah always reached a point at which he felt a pressing need to have that twinkling look directed at him in a way that meant: "You. You are in on the secret too. I am smiling for myself but you get to be part of it." So he did stuff like marrying Peter Lukas a second time and hiring a priest so Peter would smile at "Till death do you part" and wink at Jonah as if it was their personal conspiracy.  
When they were quarrelling, Jonah made up for that particular weakness of his heart tenfold. At those times, all he wanted was to destroy Peter Lukas, to make him regret the day “Elias Bouchard” had come into his life.

They were quarrelling when Peter tried to get Martin to kill Jonah and, by now, Jonah's pretty sure that he felt a sense of triumph when Peter decided not to give up without a fight. He'd known that he would win and he did. Peter is destroyed, dead, and Jonah has the ultimate prize at his fingertips – the world. Down here in the tunnels, Jonah allows himself to think that he would give up the world to see Peter smile at him once again.

Finally, Jonah finds the room. He Knows it's the right one just as he'd Known the rooms he'd passed on the way here were the wrong ones. He also Knows what he will see once he enters. The corpse of Peter in a sitting position, not as rotten as he should be after having been dead for a week. Dried blood at his face's orifices, eyes missing. An expression of pure agony, etched into this face for all eternity. The suit Peter bought when he became head of the institute, something about looking respectable while representing Jonah’s life’s work. The heinous purple tie with green ankers Jonah had gotten him for one of their anniversaries. Jonah always got him ugly ties for their anniversaries and Peter had worn every single one at least once. Experience tells him that the room will smell terrible and Jonah will See the incomprehensible absence of life that, after, all these decades, still sends terror through his bones. This will be hard because it’s always harder to see a dead body when you care about the person it previously belonged to; Jonah cares about Peter Lukas a lot, more than he admits to anyone. He Knows all this and thinks he is prepared. But Knowing and seeing are two different things so when he opens the door he falls to his knees and hates himself for his weakness. Peter Lukas had touched his heart and Jonah had just let him. Now everything is pain and Jonah isn’t sure he’ll ever get up again.

The dead silence of the room is only broken by his quiet sobs and ragged breaths.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry if the tenses are a little wonky, this started out in simple past like most of my fics but that just got too confusing so I had to change it but I might have overlooked some stuff.
> 
> I hope you liked this despite the grammar mistakes. If you did, please leave a comment or kudos, they show me that my writing is appreciated. You can also come find me on tumblr as [sumquiasum](https://sumquiasum.tumblr.com/) (my main blog) or [writtelings](https://writtelings.tumblr.com) (my writeblr).


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